Racism, sexism the ugly twins of Democratic campaign

May 27, 2008|Marie Gottfried, Lake Worth

Even though the talking heads have spent hours analyzing the results of the primary votes in West Virginia and Kentucky, every single pundit seems to be afraid to state the obvious truth. The outcomes we see in Appalachia are largely the result of overt racism. Undereducated, culturally isolated white people simply will not vote for a black person, qualified or not.

The Clintons and their supporters are living in Fantasyland if they think these same people are going to vote for a woman, any woman, in November. Nothing is going to change the fact that they will vote for John McCain. Sexism and racism are ugly twins.

The Obama campaign has been criticized by pundits for not spending more time and not "fighting harder" for votes in Kentucky and West Virginia. Perhaps the very capable people running the campaign understand full well the underlying reality than no one will speak out loud.

As hard as Sen. Obama tried to avoid this 800-pound gorilla, racism, it's sitting in the middle of everyone's living room. The Washington Post did run a front-page article on the topic. Will the South Florida Sun-Sentinel acknowledge the issue? The TV pundits seem terrified to confront the big boy. Will any of them ever get some courage?

It is true that some of the sexist attacks on Sen. Clinton cross every acceptable line. However, for women to blame misogyny for the results of flawed campaign strategy and other unattractive qualities in the candidate (e.g. lying about Bosnia and other things) for losing is disingenuous. It sets women back when we trot out misogyny as an excuse for other failings.